Crafting imaginative creative for major advertising agencies, global brands, and entertainment companies requires an unbounded imagination. It demands the kind of creativity that Hornet has showcased for more than 25 years across its live action, visual effects (VFX), stop motion, motion design, 3D, cel animation, and brand strategy work.
As the studio has continued to grow and evolve, they needed to up-level their infrastructure to keep up with the demand of the work. Recognizing the power of scalability on demand, Hornet mapped out a plan to leverage the cloud. Working with solutions integrator Integrated Media Technologies (IMT), the studio ultimately opted to integrate with Amazon Web Services (AWS), and quickly deployed an efficient cloud-based render farm.
“Resource capacity has always been an issue in our industry with the ebbs and flows of projects, and the cloud is the perfect solution for it. To purchase or rent all the necessary gear to accommodate production spikes or specialized machine requirements is not fun or economical, so having the ability to spin up and down on demand is a huge win for us,” said Greg Bedard, Hornet Managing Partner.
“We looked at a range of cloud options and AWS was heads and shoulders above the rest; it’s definitely the most mature technology,” added Kevin Poli, Hornet Pipeline Technical Director. “There’s a lot of great educational resources about getting trained on AWS, so it was very accessible.”
Image courtesy of Hornet.
Building for the future
As longtime users of the render management software AWS Thinkbox Deadline, Hornet’s cloud provider decision was also influenced by its native integration with AWS. The studio had initially developed a basic hybrid render solution on premises and on AWS in 2021 but wanted to build a new cloud-based AWS implementation from scratch. This strategy was the groundwork to better scale when moving to their new location in the SoHo area of New York City in 2023 rather than invest heavily in building an on-premises data center. The move to a densely populated area would make physical expansion largely unfeasible, and they wanted to avoid the logistical headache of renting or purchasing machines.
